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Shaving Grace

Using the best chair-making traditions, Berea, Kentucky, craftsman Brian Boggs creates works of art that can be sat on. This segment explores the painstaking process Boggs uses to make his chairs—from locating and cutting the wood to designing and making the chair.

Have students choose one of Boggs’ chairs or furniture pieces and respond to it using the four-step process of describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate.

Explore different types of chairs and chair making. What are some of the forms this has taken as an example of craft and art?

Research the Appalachian region and culture with special emphasis on the folk art of the region. As a class, make a list of the many types of folk art from this area from doll clothes to storytelling to chair making. Define the term folk art and discuss each item on your list as folk art.

Berea, Kentucky, chair maker Brian Boggs started making chairs more than 30 years ago, following in the tradition of early Appalachian chair making once common in this area. He has since refined his style and techniques to reflect, as he puts it, “both a love and understanding of the local tradition of chair making as well as my own aesthetic sensibility and desire for comfort. The result is what I like to refer to as a contemporary Appalachian chair.” Boggs uses the elements of art and principles of design in each chair he creates. See his work at www.brianboggschairs.com. The site also includes a blog about chair making.

Brian Boggs chairs are the definition of “fine craftsmanship.” As an artist, Boggs combines sensitivity to the material and a mastery of the tools to create chairs that demonstrate unlimited possibilities for creative artistry. Through the process of designing chairs, Boggs designed and created his own specialty tools. Chair making has led Boggs to amazing opportunities, such as teaching his skills to indigenous tribes in Honduras and Peru as well as craftsmen in Canada, England and the United States.